Charlie’s Story: Investing and Entrepreneurship

Charlie Hiscox is the Founder and Director of uSports, an award-winning team of over 110 people that helps schools and nurseries provide positive sporting opportunities for as many children as possible.

A successful entrepreneur since a young age, Charlie has been investing with CapitalRise since 2019 and is a passionate advocate of the investment platform.

As part of our new ‘People of CapitaRise’ series – which looks at the stories behind our investors – we caught up with Charlie. Read more about his journey to becoming a business leader, what drives him forward, and why he invests with CapitalRise.

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Getting the ball rolling

From an early age, I have always been really into sports. In fact, I remember little else from primary school! This made me quite a competitive person, which can be a good thing in business as well as on the playing field – if it is channelled the right way.

By secondary school, I was already keen to earn money and support myself. I didn’t like being reliant on others. From 6am paper rounds in the snow, to buying and selling second-hand videogames in the playground, to clearing fallen apples from neighbours’ trees (for £5 a bag!), I’ve always been entrepreneurially minded.

These early experiences taught me some important lessons. I came to appreciate the time and effort needed for even ‘simple’ ventures. Also, if someone says, “No, I’m not interested” then move on and don’t be afraid of getting knocked back. That is the resilience you need going into business.

A Change of Direction

I began sports coaching after leaving school and, on gaining my qualifications, it quickly built into a full-time career. After a bad experience working for another company, I decided to set up uSports when I was just 21 years old. It started with a couple of weekly after-school clubs with around nine kids in each. Now, running the business alongside my wife Steph, on just one day we coached around 430 kids at camps over 14 venues – so the business has grown pretty quickly!

After founding the business, I read ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki, which was very influential. To build wealth, it advises you only buy nice-to-haves from your ‘passive’, not ‘earned’, income. Passive income streams – like stock dividends or investments such as CapitalRise – should continue to put money in your pocket regardless of your main income. I realised I was relying entirely on my earned income, and had nothing to draw on outside of that.

Soon afterwards, I sold my nice car (a depreciating asset that I purchased with that earned income) and looked for somewhere to put those funds where they would instead generate passive income. That was when I started to investigate different investment options.

Investing with CapitalRise

Before coming to CapitalRise, I had used another investment platform. While they were good, I thought there was probably a better option out there. After reading the strong Trustpilot reviews, and doing my research – the average returns, whether they have defaulted and so on – I decided to try CapitalRise.

It gives me a sense of security knowing that the money I make from the business should continue to generate good returns for me through CapitalRise. With this other income source ticking away, it also gives me more confidence to try new things with my business.

It’s led to a mental shift for me. When I was younger, I used to earn money and think, “Great, now I can buy a nice car”. Now, rather than putting tens of thousands into, say, a car that loses value or a cash account that gets eaten away by inflation, I typically put the funds into CapitalRise investments where they have, so far, all gained value. These investments are important as they have given me that passive income stream I was looking for. 

Active Business. Passive Income.

When you read more about it, you often see people saying: “There’s no such thing as passive income”. To some extent that is true. I had previously invested in a Buy to Let (BTL) property but it involved so much work, maintenance and admin that it started to consume almost as much time as my main business! The same was true with Stocks & Shares investments, where I would be constantly tracking their performance and worrying whether to sell or not.

With CapitalRise, you still need to do some work as an investor – for instance, reading the information to decide between investment opportunities. But once I have made the investment, I trust the CapitalRise team to monitor the project and regularly communicate updates to me.

The more I have invested with them, the more trust I’ve built in the platform. I know all the information I need to make a decision is there, and I have got to know the team over the years. Now, whenever I release money from the business, I typically feed it into a CapitalRise investment. With the passive income I’ve received from CapitalRise, I can now spend more on a car or the house – rather than relying on my main ‘earned’ income from the business.

F.O.C.U.S.

Compared to those other investment options I tried – BTL property and stocks – CapitalRise is just so easy.  You lock the funds in for a loan term of, say, 12 or 24 months and – while you know the overall property market fluctuates – you can see how your individual investments are performing over that time.

As a business owner, this is really important. CapitalRise balances good risk-adjusted returns with being hassle-free, so I can get on with running our business.

I always go by ‘F.O.C.U.S.’ which stands for ‘follow one course until successful’. My main focus will always be uSports. Now, probably only 2% of my time goes into CapitalRise as I find it so easy to use, and I have the rest to dedicate to the business. That’s a big change from my stocks and BTL experiences!

Inspiring Role Models

My mum and dad taught me to stay true to what I think is right and gave me my entrepreneurial drive. I must also mention my wife, Steph, who is super caring and can’t do enough for anyone. Steph massively balances me out and, alongside running the business with me 50:50, she helps to remind me that life isn’t about just making money – and that we need to take time to appreciate everything we have.

Because, ultimately, why are you investing, making returns or building a business? For me it’s to build your family life, and to enjoy that nest with the peace of mind knowing that you’ve helped to create it. So, I am very lucky to have a support network that inspires me entrepreneurially, but also to give me something so important to work hard for.

The best piece of advice I was given was the last thing my granddad said to me before he passed away, and it was simply: “Enjoy it mate. Enjoy it.”

I always come back to that and think, whatever you are doing, you really should try and get satisfaction from it. Whether that’s at work or at home. I am so ambitious and driven that it is important to remain grounded and remember what is important to you.

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